The iPod Touch Review. Part 2: The Touch is a Portable Media Player

It is a common misconception that Apple invented the portable media player a little over 10 years ago with the original iPod.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Digital music has been around much longer than that.  In fact, I still remember coveting the Rio Jukebox, a brick of a device which could hold a whopping 40 albums (if my memory serves me correctly).  Then again, even though Apple did not invent the portable media player, they certainly did advance the genre significantly.  What Apple gave us was an easy to use platform.  Before the iPod, transferring your music and syncing it to your media player was a chore, riddled with frustration.  Apple gave us a checkbox-based interface, which made it easy to sync the content on your computer with your iPod.  But, more on that, later.

Of course, through the years, the iPod continued to evolve and grow, as it developed a color screen, video capabilities, a touch screen, and more.  The ultimate culmination of these efforts (so far) is the iPod Touch/iPhone.  Despite  all of the advanced capabilities that the iPod now offers, however, its roots are forever bound to that original portable media player.  Unlike, which were developed as mini-computers that happen to play music and videos, therefore, the iPod is a portable media player, which has developed other features.  Because of these evolutionary origins of the iPod Touch, the portable media player seemed like the ideal place to start our look at the capabilities of this device.

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